Eleanor E. Maccoby

Gender segregation in childhood.

Publisher Summary This chapter argues that gender segregation is a powerful phenomenon of childhood. The extent of its occurrence does depend on situations arranged by adults for childrens interactions and therefore cross-cultural and within-culture situational variations make a great deal of difference in the amount of interactive contact male and female children have with one another. The implication of analysis is that, over and above situational variation, there are forces for children to segregate themselves spontaneously in situations, such as school playgrounds where there are large numbers of children and where a childs behavior is open to the observation of other children. The chapter suggests that gender segregation results from a combination of several forces, including the dominance relations between the sexes, age-specific avoidance of romantic or sexually toned relationships, and gender labeling. The last is of paramount importance and may account, in part, for both the dominance relationships and sexual avoidance.

Maternal Responsiveness and Subsequent Child Compliance.

PARPAL, MARY, and MACCOBY, ELEANOR E. Maternal Responsiveness and Subsequent Child Compliance. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1985, 56, 1326-1334. This study contrasts the effects of 3 modes of mother-child interaction on childrens subsequent compliance with maternal directives. Subjects were 39 children, ranging in age from 3-2 to 4-6, from lower-middle-class families. Prior to the compliance test, mothers and children were in 1 of the following conditions: Responsive Play (mother trained), Free Play (mother untrained), or Noninteractive. Both the Responsive Play and Noninteractive conditions produced higher levels of child compliance than the untrained Free Play condition. In the discussion, reciprocity theory is contrasted with 2 other viewpoints: reinforcement theory and social deprivation theory.

Gender and Group Process: A Developmental Perspective

Until recently, the study of gender development has focused mainly on sex typing as an attribute of the individual. Although this perspective continues to be enlightening, recent work has focused increasingly on childrens tendency to congregate in same-sex groups. This self-segregation of the two sexes implies that much of childhood gender enactment occurs in the context of same-sex dyads or larger groups. There are emergent properties of such groups, so that certain sex-distinctive qualities occur at the level of the group rather than at the level of the individual. There is increasing research interest in the distinctive nature of the group structures, activities, and interactions that typify all-male as compared with all-female groups, and in the socialization that occurs within these groups. Next steps in research will surely call for the integration of the individual and group perspectives.

Effects of distraction upon central versus incidental recall: Developmental trends

Forty children from each of four grades (first, third, fifth, and seventh) were tested for recall of material relevant to a central task, and also for recall of incidental material. Half the children at each age level were tested with a “distractor” which contained a cue for which the subjects were required to remain vigilant. The other half were tested without distraction. The major findings were: (1) Recall of central (task-relevant) material increased regularly with age. (2) Recall of irrelevant material did not increase through the first-to-fifth-grade age range, and declined between the fifth and seventh grades. (3) Distraction had a clear effect upon the acquisition of task-relevant information, lowering the central scores at all the age levels studied. (4) Distraction did not have a significant effect upon incidental recall, although there was a tendency for the incidental scores to be lower under distraction at the higher age levels. (5) There was no evidence that under distraction older children achieve greater efficiency on a central task by means of excluding incidental information. Scores on the central and incidental tasks were independent.

Perspectives on gender development

Two traditional perspectives on gender development—the socialisation and cognitive perspectives— are reviewed. It is noted that although they deal quite well with individual differences within each sex with regard to degree of sex-typing, they do not offer satisfactory explanations for some of the most robust gender dimorphisms: namely, gender segregation and the divergent patterns of interaction within all-male as compared with all-female dyads or groups. These patterns are briefly summarised, and their similarity to those found in nonhuman primates and other mammals is noted. It is argued that an ethological perspective, and its modern successor the psychobiological perspective, are needed, along with the more traditional perspectives, to provide a comprehensive account of gender development as it occurs in dyads and groups as well as within individual children.

Sex-typing behavior and sex-typing pressure in child/parent interaction

The sex-typing of children and the sex-typing pressure of parents was investigated during free play in a home visit. There were 30 male and 24 female 45-month-olds observed with their mothers and fathers in separate free-play sessions during which an array of both sex-stereotyped and neutral toys were available. Behavioral observations were recorded for a variety of parent, child, and dyadic behaviors, including initiations of sex-typed play, total sex-typed play, and rough-and-tumble play. Children initiated sex-typed play and played with sex-appropriate toys. Father-child and mother-daughter dyads were more likely to engage in thematic play appropriate to the childs sex, while in mother-son dyads equal amounts of masculine and feminine play occurred. In addition father-son dyads displayed the highest levels of rough-and tumble play and arousal of child by parent. The results suggest that fathers are the discriminating influence on sex-appropriate play.

Age trends in selective listening

Abstract Groups of 32 children in each of three grades (kindergarten, second, and fourth) listened to a mans voice and a womans voice, speaking words simultaneously. On one run through the 23 pairs of words, S s were instructed to report what the mans voice was saying; on another, the words spoken by the woman. The stimulus words were systematically varied with respect to the number of syllables they contained. For cach S , the stimulus words were presented on one occasion binaurally (both words in both cars), on another occasion, dichotically (two different words in each ear). The number of correct reports of the word spoken by the desired voice increased with age; the number of intrusive errors (reports of words spoken by the unwanted voice) declined with age. At all age levels, scores were higher under dichotic presentation, but there was no change with age in the advantage derived from this presentation. Children at each age level made more errors on single-syllable than on multi-syllable words, but this difference was greater for older children. An analysis of errors revealed systematic differences among age groups in the nature of wrong guesses. Performanec improved through blocks of trials, at all age levels.

Enforcing divorce settlements: evidence from child support compliance and award modifications.

This paper uses an implicit contracting framework to understand the dynamic nature of divorce settlements and to analyze the determinants of noncompliance with child support awards. In addition to the standard economic variables that affect the noncustodial parent’s (NCP’s) ability to pay child support, our approach focuses on factors that may affect the NCP’s desire to pay, such as the ongoing relationship between the two parents and between the NCP and the children. We also examine the “state-contingent” nature of child support payments and explore the factors that lead to modifications in child support agreements. Using a longitudinal data set collected by the Stanford Child Custody Project, the empirical analysis provides documentation that compliance by noncustodial fathers can vary substantially from month to month. In addition, we find that even within a short period after divorce, a substantial minority of parents agree to make informal modifications to their divorce settlement in response to changes in economic circumstances and in custodial arrangements

INTERPERSONAL CORRELATES OF DIFFERENTIAL ABILITIES

This study explores the interpersonal correlates of differential patterns of cognitive ability. From an initial population of 1,200 fifth-grade children, 126 Ss with discrepancies between verbal, space, and number ability were selected for study. Interpersonal characteristics were assessed by self-report questionnaires and peer ratings. Findings support the conclusions that discrepant verbal ability is associated with continued and somewhat conflictful dependency on adults and lowered social interaction with peers, whereas numerical ability is related to assertiveness, interpersonal competence, and a more appropriate level of dependency. High space ability, when associated with low verbal or number skills, was related to sex-inappropriate patterns of behavior (passivity in boys and aggressiveness in girls).

Less Day Care or Different Day Care

Commentary is provided on 2 papers published in this issue, which suggest some risks in nonmaternal or out-of-home care (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD] Early Child Care Research Network, this issue; Watamura, Donzella, Alwin, & Gunnar, this issue). In light of the findings, 2 child care policy options are examined: first, support for in-home care in the early years; and second, changes in the nature of out-of-home care. From ethnographic and experimental research, it is argued that out-of-home pre-elementary care can contribute positively to social development if it emphasizes (a) childrens attachment to school and peer group, (b) constructivist rather than didactic learning, (c) intrinsic and internalized motivation, and (4) group structures that support social development.